The iPod, and generally most MP3 players, has revolutionized to some extent the way we enjoy and consume music, but has also somewhat lowered the taste for high-quality audio, a problem that musician Neil Young is seeking to solve with his new Pono portable music player and online store. And, if his optimism gets translated […]
More and more people may be relying on their smartphones for portable entertainment, but Sony isn’t willing to leave even a shrinking PMP market to Apple’s iPod, hence the new E-Series Walkman range. The Walkman E580 and Walkman E380 each support music, video, and photo playback, with the E580 having a 2-inch display and a battery good for up to 77hrs of use, while the smaller E380 scales it down to 1.77-inches of screen and up to 30hrs of runtime.
The Walkman E580 – effectively an iPod nano alternative – comes in 8GB and 16GB capacities, good for up to 3,700 tracks. It will play MP3, WMA, Linear PCM, AAC, HE-AAC, FLAC, and Apple Lossless audio, and AVC, MPEG4, and WMV 9 video, and comes with a set of MDR-NC31 noise-cancelling earphones.
They work with Sony’s own Clear Bass, Clear Stereo, and Clear Phase digital processing, as well as “Virtualphones Technology” (VPT) which is basically the company’s attempts at modeling different environments, such as a recording studio or a club.
As for the Sony Walkman E380, that’s the smaller version, coming in 4GB and 8GB capacities for up to 1,950 tracks. It’ll play 4hrs of video, though only supports WMV 9; audio support misses out on the HE-AAC, FLAC, and Apple Lossless of its bigger sibling.
It also gets a more mundane pair of bundled headphones, though Sony does at least throw an FM radio inside. Listeners also get the Clear Bass and Clear Stereo processing.
Both the Sony Walkman NWZ-E580 and Walkman NWZ-E380 will go on sale in Europe later this month, with pricing yet to be announced.
Sony Walkman E580 and E380 take on Apple’s iPod nano is written by Ewdison Then & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Remember the days before portable media players sported touchscreens? You’ll soon be able to relive that golden era with Cowon‘s iAUDIO 9+, a diminutive PMP that’s launching July 12th in Japan. The device features a 2-inch QVGA (320 x 240-pixel) display mounted above a capacitive touchpad and comes in three capacities (and two colors) — 8GB (white) for 11,800 Yen ($118), 16GB (black) for 13,800 Yen ($138) and 32GB (black) for 16,800 Yen ($168). It boasts a 30mW headphone amp, video connectivity (with an optional cable) and even a microphone and FM radio (to record voice and broadcasts). The unit measures 95 x 43 x 8.9mm (3.74 x 1.69 x 0.35 inches), and weighs just 40g (1.41oz). Battery life is rated at 29 hours for audio playback and seven hours for video content. Rounding things up are 48 (!) EQ presets and support for a plethora of formats (including such rarities as FLAC and OGG) along with USB mass storage.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video
Source: Cowon (translated)
Apple has sold more than 100m of its iPod touch PMPs, the company has confirmed, with the latest variant on the best-selling media player being revealed earlier today. The touchscreen gadget launched in its first generation back in 2007, and has since sold in excess of 100 million units, Apple told The Loop; this morning, a $229 16GB iPod touch with a 4-inch Retina display was made official.
The new model marks the demise of the 3.5-inch iPod touch, which Apple had kept around following the launch of the 5th-gen 4-inch model to cater to the entry level market. However, there are a few compromises to be made to hit that price, not least the removal of the rear 5-megapixel iSight camera.
Apple’s cheapest iPod touch also loses the lanyard ring, and is only available in the single color: metallic silver.
At the last count – back in July 2012 – Apple said it had sold 82m of the iPod touch. It’s an impressive climb in the intervening period, particularly given widespread industry predictions that smartphones – such as Apple’s own iPhone – would kill off dedicated media players given they were capable of all their functionality and more.
Instead, the iPod touch did the unthinkable, and ramped up the pressure on dedicated gaming handhelds from Sony and Nintendo. The rise of 99-cent games in the App Store, and the regular bumps in processing and graphics performance the iPod was capable of, meant picking up a specific device solely for gaming began to pale in its appeal.
Meanwhile, the majority of Apple’s focus has arguably shifted to the iPhone and iPad, though the iPod touch sales announcement suggests that the PMP has not been entirely left behind. Whether it also means that the 3.5-inch screen size is soon to be retired completely – meaning the demise of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S is also relatively imminent – remains to be seen, though there are long-standing rumors of a cheaper iPhone (potentially being made by Pegatron) that would presumably offer the same 4-inch screen size of the iPhone 5.
Apple: 100m iPod touch sold since 2007 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apple has quietly revealed a new iPod touch, a 16GB model with a 4-inch Retina display and a $229 price tag, though it loses some of its siblings more advanced features, such as the rear camera. The new 16GB iPod touch finally replaces the last-gen 3.5-inch version which Apple had kept around in 16GB and 32GB forms to cater to the more affordable end of the market.
This new model has a dual-core Apple A5 processor and steps up to a FaceTime HD camera on the front. Apple also throws in a set of its EarPods headphones, and of course the display runs at Retina resolution just as per the latest 4-inch iPhone and iPod touch.
However, there’s been a compromise or two to make the price point. Most obvious is the omission of a rear camera, with the 5-megapixel iSight camera of the regular 4-inch iPod touch being dropped to save money.
The lanyard loop on the existing model has also been left off of this cheaper version, though whether that will prove too frustrating to buyers is questionable. Otherwise, you get the same WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and Nike+ integration, a speaker and microphone, and a Lightning connector.
The new 16GB iPod touch is priced at $229, and ships within 24 hours; it’ll be on sale in Apple stores from May 31, the company says. You’ll have to like silver, though, as that’s the only color option Apple offers. The regular iPod touch is $299 for the 32GB version, or $399 for the 64GB model.
VIA: The Verge
Apple outs new 16GB iPod touch with 4-inch Retina but no main camera is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The dedicated MP3 player can be said to have gone all but extinct, especially when you consider that folks these days prefer to carry all of their favorite tunes on a single smartphone (which is more than capable of just playing back your MP3 files, as those do video, too). Well, word has it that Cowon holds out a flicker of hope for the dedicated MP3 player by introducing the Cowon D20, which is a device that offers up to 90 hours of non-stop audio playback.
Oh yeah, we forgot to add, it does video playback too, and we are talking about 13 hours of juice here, which means you can watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy without having to charge it up. Too bad the display is nothing much to shout about, being a 2.5-inch, 320 x 240 resistive touchscreen, and has the internal memory of 8GB to 32GB, which can be further augmented via an SD memory card slot. I guess most folks would sacrifice battery life for a larger and higher resolution display, but with pricing details that hover between $125 and $178, depending on capacity, it ain’t too shabby a deal if you are looking for a long distance runner.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The Vamp Adds Bluetooth Connectivity To Most Speakers, Sonos Black Matte Sub Now Available For $599, 
Last year, we asked you to examine Samsung’s Galaxy Player 4.0, and your comments clustered around three trends — better audio, better build and any OS that wasn’t called Gingerbread. The Galaxy Player 4.2, therefore, offers audio that just isn’t loud enough, a skinned version of Gingerbread and the sense that it was thrown together from leftover smartphone parts. As our reviewer judged, it’s not a bad piece of kit, but one that was honed into being utterly mediocre. If you bought one, then it’s time to play amateur PMP designer and tell us if you agree with our staff audiophile. What did you love, what did you hate and most importantly, what would you change?
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Samsung
FreedomPop’s gamble on free WiMAX data launched in beta at the start of month, but early adopters had to be contented with conventional hotspots and modems at first; those of us with a fixation on data-only cellular handsets had to keep waiting. We can stay slightly cooler-headed now that the provider is shipping its iPod touch 4G Sleeve. Shelling out $99 grafts a 4G hotspot to the back of the fourth-generation media player that gives it independence from WiFi as well as connection sharing with eight other devices — at least, for anyone willing to burn through that 500MB of free monthly data in record time. About the only catches are the $10 per gigabyte overage fee and a design that’s just slightly behind the times for iPod addicts. While some of us will still cling to smartphones for coverage or legacy reasons, others who mostly communicate through Instagram food photos could have that excuse they need to drop cellular phone service once and for all.
Update: Thanks to reader (and early adopter) Penn who pointed out that overages are $20 per gigabyte if you’re on the free plan — it’s only $10 if you’re a regularly paying customer.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Wireless, Networking, Mobile
FreedomPop ships its 4G-enabling iPod touch case, lets us nearly go phoneless for $99 (update: plan clarifications) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple has sold three million of its new iPod touch 5th gen and iPod nano 7th gen media players since they went on sale, the company has confirmed. Announced alongside the iPhone 5 back in September, the two new iPods are best-sellers, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed.
The figures are particularly impressive given many have suggested that standalone media players are a dying breed. Smartphones – capable of just as much media playback, and more – are increasingly taking on the role that once standalone PMPs might have filled.
That’s not to say that either the iPod touch or the iPod nano are limited to just music. Both play video, and the iPod nano has integrated Nike+ sports functionality. The iPod touch runs iOS 6, just like the iPhone 5, which means it has access to the App Store.
We’re covering all of Apple’s iPad mini event in San Jose today, and you can find all the details at our Apple Hub.
Apple sells 3m iPod touch 5G and iPod nano 7G is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
